FX Roundup: Commodity currencies take another tumble

Commodity linked currencies took another tumble on Monday, while the euro and pound recovered versus the dollar over late afternoon trading in Europe.

At 1606 GMT, the euro was up 0.36% against the greenback exchanging at $1.0835 while the pound rose 0.07% exchanging at $1.4271.

Kit Juckes, head of forex at Societe Generale, said, “We'd like to stay short on the pound, even though we may see a bit more of a bounce before we're done. Brexit fears aren't going to go away. The December retail sales told us nothing other than the UK seasonal data distortions are monstrous but the Bank of England is on hold for a long time and that makes any bounce temporary.”

Major commodity linked currencies continued to grab attention as oil rebounded as high as $33 per barrel in Asia before falling back to the $31 mark, still close to lows last seen in December 2003.

Earlier in the session, Russia's statistics office said the country’s economic growth fell 3.7% on an annualised basis in 2015 down from a growth figure of 0.6% the year before, according to preliminary data.

Tax receipts of oil and gas, which account for over 50% of the Russian Treasury’s net takings, were severely dented by a decline in the oil price with Brent futures ending 2015 over 36% lower. Additionally, a mixed bag of international sanctions on Russia in wake of the Ukraine crisis and lower consumer confidence resulted in retail sales and capital investment declines of 10% and 8.4% respectively; the worst on record since 2009.

Russia's currency - the rouble - fell to record lows against the dollar last week, exchanging at RUR85 to a dollar before recovering. At the close of trading in Moscow, a dollar changed hands at RUR78.87 down 1.1%.

Elsewhere, the greenback rose 0.97% against the Canadian dollar exchanging at CAD$1.4256. Concurrently, the Australian dollar fell 0.50% against the greenback exchanging at US$0.6967 and the New Zealand dollar fell 0.31% exchanging at US$0.6473.

In Latin America, the dollar rose against major regional crosses, including the Colombian (up 2.04%), Mexican (up 0.57%) and Chilean (up 0.69%) pesos.